Someone found out a way to bypass the password on all Hotmail accounts. As reported on Geeklife and Slashdot. The implications are not good if you’re using one of their accounts. Seems like the problem has gone away now.

Saw Go! and South Park (finally). I recommend Go – really funny in parts. It’s one of those films where they present various, loosely related “threads” (individually titled, too) and tie those threads together by the end (Pulp Fiction, Lock Stock, et al). Arlington Road is not your typical Hollywood movie. Perhaps this should be recommended to the more ardent supporters of conspiracy theories. You all know about South Park already.

I found out when Blair Witch is coming to Australia. Mid-December. Damn. :Þ

As much as I hate to say it, it’s nothing special (asides from the fact that it’s C&C and it’s got a lot of nice cutscenes). Had it been released one year earlier, maybe. I didn’t know James Earl Jones was casted in it…

 Roosh has redesigned his whole site. Thoughts. I don’t like how it’s a headlines only system. That means, for each article you have to invidually click through to them. I wouldn’t mind the increased load times – it takes longer to load up 5 separate pages anyway (and not every post deserves its own separate page. As for the style, it’s nice, clean and improved. Have you seen WTWDrecently?

Top level domains. If they happen, it won’t be because some relatively small two bit company run by a (former?) porn webmaster starts it up. No, I don’t think MS would let that happen. If the system is as centralised as it currently is, there’s nothing to stop a company, be it MS or whoever, who has more resources and better infrastructure (not to mention the ability to code the addition of the DNS mods into the O/S) to control it all. And we all wouldn’t want that, would we. The funny thing is, by the time this truly takes off, a good part of the two years of free domain time would be gone. There’s no such thing as a free lunch. You registered 100 domain names? That’s a hefty bill waiting for you if you want to renew it after two years…

Suddenly, Trek got a lot more daring. Sometimes DS9 is called a “soapie in space” and this episode is about the closest Trek will get to resembling soapies. The whole episode revolved around Quark trying to get some randy Klingon sex (yes, we’re all repulsed by the thought) and the aging O’Brien getting a little too attached to Kira. Throw on top of this the sudden emergence of an explicit, intimate relationship (well, in Klingon terms, anyway) between Dax (“You’re in it for the sex, aren’t you Quark?”) and Worf, and it doesn’t sound like sci-fi anymore. This was a well written, enjoyable episode. The writers are noticeably more seasoned, working with distinct, well developed characters. They are getting better at adding “natural” humour – humour that doesn’t seem just stuck in, or humour that comes from a couple cheap one-liners (the Odo and Kira scene, for instance, was quite amusing). A much better episode than last week’s. Just one final thought… did Dax and Worf have sex at the end or did I misinterpret that? I’m with Bashir… I’d probably be better off not asking these questions.

While we’re on the topic of university faculties, the school of computing is pretty disorganised as well. Our first java assignment was meant to come out last Friday. Didn’t happen, should be out Monday the lecturer said. So Tuesday rolls around, and there’s a note on the site that says “available late Tues evening.” Nuh-uh. Today’s Wednesday. I get home, and the note has been revised to “available 9pm Wednesday.” Check back a couple hours later, and what does it now read? “Available Thursday.” Of course, I’m in no rush to receive the assignment, but I get the feeling that the due date isn’t moving…

I worry about the accounting faculty at UNSW… Someone (most probably deranged) has been writing a series of soapies entitled, “Ruling off: An Australian soapie based on accounting standards.” Here’s an excerpt from the pilot episode about Depreciation. If you just happen to have some stragne compulsion to see more (you must be an accountant…) click through.

Depreciation is a process of allocation not valuation

<Depreciation is a process of allocation not valuation. What would that mean then> shane says, absent-mindedly scratching his scrotum.

<More for them less for us> intones jane as she checks her breasts for lumps.

<Accounting standards wouldn’t say stuff like that goddess>

<You’re a chook short of a raffle sometimes shane> says jane, squashing a cockroach with the handbook.

I never used a typing tutor program since last year, in the school computer labs. A friend sent me one over ICQ the other day and I managed to clock this raw typing rate up. The accuracy is probably 10% too high, because this program allows you to backspace over mistakes, and fix them up. Incidentally, the Soapbox made a post about an online typing tutor thing..

Part of my uni course is 18 months of industrial training (scattered throughout the 4 years). The first 6 months start next year. They handed out the preference forms last week – where we list which companies we’d like to go to from the 40 or so sponsors available (big list to choose from… companies like PWC, IBM, Telstra, Com Tech, Oracle, Lotus etc). Funnily enough, no one wants to go to the RTA. I chose Com Tech, Aspect, Advantra and EDS as my top 4 prefs. If I get either the first or second, I’ll be looking for accreditation of sorts – maybe even Cisco certification, but that may be pushing it. Might have to settle for the +I bit to my MCSE, A+ cert or Novell cert. Of course, that’s assuming I get those companies. There are limited spots, and the faculty provides 5 days for us to swap companies with each other. There will be sparks flying… Com Tech and PWC are the more popular ones… anyone with those will be powerbrokers if they decide they don’t want to go to those companies ultimately. I should be told which company I’m to go to in 2 weeks time.

I’m sure you’re all sick and tired of KillKrazy’s antics and are wishing his site would just “resume normal programming”. Well, I’ve got info from a “reliable source” very close to KillKrazy that the site will be back in a matter of weeks, incorporating a location change (Xoom maybe? Wouldn’t that be a sight.). Here’s an extremely informative comment about the latest developments on his site:

Doing an MCSE (seems like everyone is)? Check out exam cram notes at Cramsession and braindumps (basically people remember all the questions from their past exams and pass them on) from Braindump Heaven, which I think can only be accessed via its IP for some reason.

A mecca site for CD burning: www.gamecopyworld.com. Break the copy protection on just about all the protected games under the sun. It’s one of those sites that’s so big and useful that you’ll wonder “why haven’t I come across this before?” (if you haven’t come across it before). Also run by the same guys is Playstation copy world, for psx games, obviously. And use Nero for burning… nice and powerful :).

A nifty program that pulls down updates (like geeknews, but better) from website and displays headlines for you, checks multiple POP boxes, and can even run perl scripts on your computer – all schedulable.

This is due to be released today, US time. Got a schmick new feature – a stats keeper. No doubt you’ll be seeing my extraordinary suicide counts appearing here soon :).

This update to Half-Life includes the following changes: - The mod browser now supports .zip file decompression. - We’ve added a new feature for server operators called ‘TF Stats’, which takes server log files and creates a web page with the results of your TFC match. TF Stats also gives awards for various feats accomplished during the game, like the “Swiss Cheese” award for the person with the most kills using the assault cannon, and the “Kamikaze” award for the player who dies the most times by his/her own hand. (Refer to \halflife\tfc\manual\TFStats.htm for instructions.) - The server now allows banning by WON uniqueid. (Refer to TFCServer.htm located in your \halflife\tfc\manual folder.) - We’ve updated the TFC manual with information about running a TFC server.

Hahahaha. That, and more amusing stuff (and anti-MS/pro-Linux propaganda) can be found on the site hosting the BO2K screenshot. It’s even got the famous disco version of the Star Wars Theme in MP3. Funky.

Yeah they’re back. My weekly thoughts on the weekly DS9 episodes. This episode was about death. Finally, we get to see someone from starfleet die a slow, lingering death (although it’s DS9’s equivalent of a red shirt). This episode tried to cover the personal side of death during wartime, but it wasn’t very “deep”. Sisko stated the obvious. It didn’t let the audience figure out the point of the episode for themselves (maybe because the episode was so vague). The episode had its moments, though, and the “item” the Vorta was looking for was a nice plot development that caught me by surprise. Nevertheless, you gotta love it when Sisko decides to go psycho.

In typical geek fashion I caught the eclipse over RealVideo. Very nice to watch… the connection cut off about 10 seconds after totality, and i spent about 2 minutes trying to reconnect (friggin Net) but the connection came back and i got the last 10 seconds. It was linked to audio and it was funny hearing the crowd gasp, go silent and cheer periodically.

Despite William Shatner’s wife dying, I’ll make this post. Apparently back in the 60s Shatner released an album, but since he couldn’t actually sing, he spoke the words in a dramatic sounding voice. Listen especially to Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds and Mr Tambourine Man. Very much a case of don’t skip your day job. And there’s also a link to a related album on CDNow. Spock, also has an album. Thanks to Phil.

Abode of the Fallen Angel changed URLs. Hosted by Solosier. This community (or perhaps more aptly, industry) is beginning to merge under large networks… sub-domains being subsidiaries, if you will. Nothing wrong with it – just an observation.

Well well well. Had this thing occurred but one month earlier, Kill might’ve taken a near clean sweep of the awards. Ah well, such is life.

This community has always been one that’s been interesting to me – especially from a sociological point of view. The controversies, the politics, the behind the scene wheelings and dealings, alliances between sites – it’s all there.

Kill is a rather intriguing online persona. From viewing just his website, it’s hard to gauge when he means something or not. One day he’s saying he suffers for his art. The next, it appears he’s grown sick and tired of it. The question now is, what’s gonna happen? Why would he lie – an action which would clearly cause a negative response from an evidently loyal band of followers? Yes, no doubts about it – while one party believes the “story” spun was ingenious etc., the fact remains that he did lie, and cruelly so. It wasn’t a joke. He took us for a ride. Could this be another self-inflicted experiment? Could it be he is finally closing shop and wanting to go down in flames of glory (or something to that effect)? He knew the consequences of his actions (as he said numerous times on his site, so it wasn’t something reckless or impulsive.

However one thing this did show, was how loyal Kill’s band of regulars are. Even though it’s clear that Kill is doing the site “for the love of it” and not for popularity, (more than I can say for F) the fact is that he is popular, and a great deal of the community has “embraced” his writings. Although he repeatedly refused to be classified into this site genre, he has been entwined in it by virtue of the fact that most of his audience is from this very community. He may be a relative unknown, but to those that know him, he’s far from that, and that is one thing what this episode has shown. The stuff written to and about him conveys some rather heavy, melodramatic words – faith, respect, betrayal, deceit and trust.

My feelings? Momentarily angry – not because of the lie, but because I got caught out and as a result feel gullible and strangely enough, embarrassed (I bet most of you did – even advanced warning didn’t make a difference in impact, but did show a measure of consideration on behalf of Kill). And this feeling didn’t last very long. There’s no personal offense taken. There shouldn’t be. That’s the main thing. It’ll definitely cause me to be more cautious and cynical about the truth to his future writings, which has both good and bad points, but feeling betrayed? No. Loss of trust? Yes, but not the sort of trust you would place in a real life friend – more a wariness about what he puts on his site.

One question remains – if Kill was offered $35K – would he sell out or not? From his convictions and writing, I’d say he would not. But over the Net – with only written words to go on – we’ll never know unless it actually happened. That’s the Net… mostly words.

Created by Bioware, (Baldur’s Gate, remember?) Neverwinter Nights is a quasi Massively Multiplayer RPG. The web site recently went live (I think), and it’s a game I’m keeping tabs on – looks very nice.

Looks like someone from Uni is ordering in a load of Multias. They’re DEC Alpha 166Mhz computers for $60… no hard drive or ram but pretty damn good for that price (built in ethernet, sound and graphics card). 64-bit RISC architecture too. It’d be a nice toy to play around with. I’m getting one. Hell, they’re cheaper than a computer game (an unburnt one ;)!

I know next to nothing about IRC. Can anyone point me to a good comprehensive site, or explain what exactly a script is? What’s a bot? And IRCop? And what’s the difference between all the different server networks? And everything else in general about it (that I wouldn’t know from using Kali, say). Mail me. 6 years and I’ve never really used IRC…

Too tempting not to comment on this. Haven’t sourced where this quote comes from (I’m dealing with the comment, not the person who wrote it. Any parallels between the post and this site would have been purely coincidental.) Make the rounds, you’ll find it.

I hate it when I see a site that has reads, “Best viewed at 800×600″ or “Looks best with IE!” and some queer logo… Now people, look. I don’t give a fuck what resolution you run at. I like my browser and I’m not going to change it because you said so. I am not going to change my ways to look at your fucking page. If you knew anything about layout or web site building (not HTML, but actual page layout and design) then you would know how to make your page look its best on every browser at every resolution with all options considered.

Oh yeah, I forgot… you use Frontpage (or some other WYSIWYG POS)… ::sigh::

Remind you of anyone’s page you read? I think I can dredge up a few reasons for placing those “recommended viewing” notices on pages. It may not prompt a user to change browsers, or screen resolutions, but at least it lets the user know that the page has been designed with a specific resolution (or range of resolutions) in mind. If you’re running it in 640×480, you may be wondering why a page looks so crap. Putting down “640×480 not recommended” shows it’s not the designer’s bad design as such, but the designer’s technical limitations in coping with inter-browser compatibilities and screen resolutions. On the other hand, people really shouldn’t be going around on 640×480. I mean, how big do you want the letters on the screen? If it weren’t for the myriad of resolution notices around, people new to the net (and/or computers) may be wondering why so many sites look shonky. They may not know they can change resolutions. When they come across enough of these notices, they may end up changing resolutions.

Yes, it’s true to an extent that good web site design involves accommodating for as many mainstream permutations of platform/operating system, browser and screen resolution as possible, but the line must be drawn somewhere. Good design is not a matter of technical compliance (yes, catering for browser compatibility is not “actual page layout and design” but “HTML” — technical coding), but tailoring design to suit the intended audience. When it comes to sites such as mine, who comprises the regular audience? I’d generalise that most of us would happily fit under the “geek” title (who here doesn’t like technology?). And noting this, how many of us would be running Lynx or IE 2.0? Or going around in 640×480? Even if you were, you’d at least be ashamed to admit it :). You are the audience I’m writing for and I’ve a feeling that the software on your machine is reasonably recent. You’ll be running Windows, Unix or Linux (screw Macs :). You’ll be running it on a decent screen resolution. And you’ll be using a 4th or 5th generation browser. I’ve even catered somewhat for Netscape 3 to be safe.

I use Frontpage. So? You can’t honestly tell me my page looks shit (except in 640×480 :P). It’s not the epitome of web design either, but it’s well constructed. It’s this “l33t” thing again, isn’t it? Where hand coding HTML somehow makes you a better web designer than letting an editor do the gruntwork? (Am I the only webmaster in this little community not warning of the purported “evils” of WYSIWYG editors??)

Daily Telegraph, 28 June, 1999. The concluding paragraph was rather amusing. Last post on this topic. Promise.

This week is a good time to make the most of whatever turns you on because – if followers of the 16th Century astrologer and physician Nostradamus are right – the world ends on Sunday.

In Japan, home of Nostradamus’s most fervent supporters, the ommunity has become obsessed with the event. The Internet is also being flooded with people offering their own thoughts on whether Sunday’s doomsday prediction is right and what one should do for their last week on Earth. Unsurprisingly, working and settling debts, or abstaining from alcohol do not seem to figure highly in the must-do activities for the week.

The basis for the current panic is a book called Centuries, in which Nostradamus wrote 1000 predictions in rhymed quatrains. For the conspiracy theorists, Century X Quatrain 72 translates as: “In the year nineteen hundred and ninety nine, seven months, from the sky will come a great King of Terror. He will resurrect the great King of Angolmois. Before and afterwards Mars reigns happily.”

While the forecasts by Nostradamus are vague enough to mean almost anything, the Japanese believe the Yellow naval battle between North and South Korea, the weak Japanese yen and – oddly – Martina Hingis’s Winbledon defeat are recent pointers to the end of the world. In Europe, there is a growing view that Nostradamus got his dates wrong by a month and that the world will cease to exist on August 11 when the northern hemisphere experiences a total eclipse of the Sun.

However, English philosophers are also urging the public not to panic. They argue that while Nostradamus has been credited with achievements such as forecasting the Great Fire of London, revolutions, wars and Adolf Hitler, he has been wrong before.

Importantly, they note his predictions continue until the year 2797, which they say is hardly a good sign that he really believed all would end on July 4, 1999.

A friend asked me to plug this web site for a theatrical company. The company will be performing Sophocle’s Antigone and the site also sports HSC resources on the play. I know this bears limited interest to 99% of you, but just give the site a squiz and give him some hits :).

One of my friends and I developed a euphemism for referring to “scenes” in real life as “movies”. If there’s a fight brewing on the streets, we say, “there’s a free movie going on there” or something like that and hang around to watch :). Whenever I come back on the trains at night there’s almost always a movie to watch. Last Friday night was no different. The train was surprisingly packed out (standing space only) at 11:30pm.

There was a group of semi-drunk people on the middle deck by the door who were being a little rowdy, but it was mainly talk. Security comes along (unlike last time, these guys were big, and spoke proper English) and tells them to chuck out the cans of Jim Beam they’re drinking. One of the drunks turns to the other, grabs his can and goes, “mate you heard what he said, chuck yer can out!” before tossing the can out the door. He’s still holding onto his own can though. He takes a swag from it and said, “Oops. Sorry I’ll chuck this can out at the next stop.”

At the next stop this couple speaking in Spanish wait at the door and before long, the drunks start asking where everyone on the carriage is from. One guy didn’t take very kindly to it saying, “it’s none of your damn business mate.” Security comes around again to find out what the noise is about before leaving again.

We pull up at Riverwood station and the group decides to have a go at a couple of Asians getting off the train. Before I knew what was happening, the previews were over and the movie started. Within the next five minutes, I heard the word “Fuck” more times than I heard in the past year. It wasn’t that every second word said was fuck – it was that every third or fourth word yelled wasn’t fuck. The train doors couldn’t close cos the Asians were blocking it so we were stuck there. The drunks were insulting the Asians while one of the Asians (who must’ve been part of some gang) went utterly ballistic. He was screaming his head off and asking them to step off the train and fight. Someone would’ve been bashed if it weren’t for the security guards who came around and stood there (they didn’t actually do anything). Half the carriage must’ve got up and moved towards the yelling to get a look at what was going on. Eventually the train got moving again and one of the drunks said, “I’m all for one on one mate, y’know? But they’re like three on one…” Security made most of them get off at the next stop.

This movie was clearly an arty movie and I won’t pretend to understand it all. “Mainstream art” is what I’d call it. I sort of understood the sorts of issues it was bringing up, but I couldn’t get a grasp on exactly what. Very surreal movie that drifts along at its own pace (damn they talk so slow!). I guess I enjoyed the movie somewhat, but I’m a little too young, too inexperienced and too immature to truly appreciate this movie and the depth of issues it covered.

As a side note, I’ve never been asked to show ID for 18+ stuff. Not for entrance to casinos or clubs. Not for alcohol, and not for R movies. But I’ve been asked to show proof that I’m over 15. Go figure.

When I attained MCSE status back in April, I got an automatic subscription to TechNet. Basically supporting the techies, they send monthly mailouts of CDs containing the latest service packs, knowledge bases, betas and so on. So many frigging CDs. I think I have over 200 TechNet CDs sitting in several boxes.

Anyway, in last month’s box arrived copies of Windows 2000 Beta 3 (professional, server and advanced server). In Intel and Alpha flavours. Installing a beta Win 2000 possibly could screw up my computer (heh you don’t even need a beta version to do that :), but curiousity got the better of me. So, in a compromise I decided I would install on my “secondary computer” on the orb drive. I thought it’d be a good way to test out the orb drive’s speed.

Installation, although it took a really, really long time, went without a hitch. Beta 3 didn’t support my SB Live! (yet) but other than that everything seemed to work fine. On the surface, Win 2000 is a very polished Win 98 running on NT architecture. Explorer crashed on me twice (hah!), but not badly enough to make me reboot. I got two screenshots of it (that Precision Pro USB joystick is probably the only true plug and pray device that’s ever worked… no driver disks… just plugged it in and it was working).

As you know there’s a solar eclipse that passes over most of Europe coming. CNN has coverage of it. I wonder when one will occur over Australian soil? I’ve gotta see a total eclipse at least once in my life. From what I’ve heard, it’s an experience of a lifetime. The stars come out, the temperature drops noticeably, birds stop singing…

Finally. This game, delayed by like, two years, is due out by the end of this month. Check out the countdown. It’s been way too long. C&C was to the RTS genre as Doom was to the FPP genre. Only Dune 2 and Wolfenstein 3D were earlier.

Almost through the “second book of the Riftwar sage” (or was that the Riftwar legacy?). The local library doesn’t have the final book. It’s gonna cost money to get it in from a library in another suburb which my local library are partnered with. Huh. Damn I’m a cheapass :). While I deprecate myself, I might as well apologise for the lack of recent updates, too. Sorry.

It’s a “special edition” of the Palm IIIe! Due to be released on August 3rd:

This Special Edition is identical to a Palm IIIe ™ connected organizer, except that it will come with a clear housing and a clear flip lid, instead of the traditional gray. The suggested retail price is $229.00 US and will be available for a limited time

Check it. Who got nominated for everything but “most hated” and “controversial event”? Looks like it’s gonna be close to a clean sweep. And he said he never got any recognition? :) Is he even gonna be back?

This is hearye.org. It is maintained by Stuart Loh (contact me). This blog has been continuously maintained since 1998, so you might like to read about it. I also create other stuff from time to time. Post no bills.Copyright notice. All content on this blog created by me is licensed under these CC license terms, unless otherwise
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